Arlene Corwin Poetry

Welcome In Twenty Twenty-Two

When all seems going fast to hell,
We owe it to ourselves to ring out
Every bell inside ourselves,
Feel well inside, to ride it out
With cheer and hope,
Not saying ‘nope’ nor moping
In an all-out negativity.

Let’s pop the cork of sympathy;
Philanthropy with sense and insight,
Making right the wrongs not -out
but inside first.
Let’s face the new year with old wisdoms.
Every culture has, knew, knows them
Through the sages of their ages.

Let’s not be marred by karma’s laws.
Past cause is always swallowed up.
Let’s sow new seeds as yet unsown
For we, the generators, Time’s creators,
Form the future still unknown.

Out with scum, the humdrum and the dumb
Caught up in busy-ness of nothingness
That’s not for us.
As said before: Let’s greet the year
With hope and cheer
Despite clear omens of the climes
And sheer despair of scattering diaspora from native homelands,
And, and, and – and
in between,

Let’s welcome twenty twenty-two
With all the things we’ve yet to do;
Taking care to make clean air,
Peace everywhere we go
To do our tiny bit to muck in with the best,
Not knuckling under with the rest.
Good luck as you become one of
the very blessed .
Welcome 2019 1.1.2019/re-composed 1.1.2022 Our Culture Our Times II; Nature In & Of Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

It’s Twenty Hundred Twenty-One!
Well, son-of-a gun, it’s
Twenty hundred twenty-one!
What’s in a name and what is time?
Its only sign: change ongoing!
Ceaseless, endless, unabating,
Unrelieved, perpetual,
Indestructible, immutable;
Part wave, vibration, particle,
In patterns unpredictable;
Each a transient, sneaking by invisibly:
A birth, a death and in-between;
That decal time that we call Time;
Its silent signal, signal siren unavoidably agreed upon.
The end!
Year gone!
Here, hopefully a hearty, helpful, healthful friend:
Year twenty hundred twenty-one!
It’s Twenty Hundred Twenty-One 1.1.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Time II; Circling Round Everything II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Night Thoughts Again
Your friends will watch you growing old
And love you anyway, in spite of, for…
Darkened over-lip, hairs on chin
Unseen by changing lenséd eyes;
Love you between thick and thin,
Loss and win.
Not picky about outer things.
Strangers can not know the difference
Between what you were and what and are,
Not caring – and why should they?
Ageing, growing old, maturing…
(Verbs you use,
show mind that’s yours,
For verb you choose
is mind that’s yours
To gauge and judge.)
In any case, grow old and let it!
House no attitude about it –
None at all,
at all,
at all.
(That’s supposed to be an echo
Bouncing back on walls of time)
Attend to something else and grow,
And grow,
and grow
and grow.
Night Thoughts Again 6.10.2013/revised 6.29.2018/renewed11.12.2021Definitely Didactic; Circling Round Time II; Circling Round Wrinkles; Circling Round Reality; Circling Round Aging;
Arlene Corwin

    Birthday Herb

My dearest childhood cousin Herb,
Understated word: Superb! 
That’s you with all you have accomplished,
Ups  and downs. Ins and outs.
Courageous, never stopping, undisturbed,
I am so proud of you.

I saw a photo: you with Dolly.
Golly! What a lovely couple!
My intention’s not to babble like a kettle drum,
But you two form the perfect ‘One’

So on this day, this special day,
Go out and play,
Eat pretzels, schnitzels, 
Guzzle wine expensive, fine;
Whipped cream cake drizzled high
With syrup, walnuts to the sky.

It is your birthday!
Make it your own cabaret  
And take our love and kisses –
With the emphasis on love.
Above all,
Have the happiest of all your days –
At your pace.
This is your place!
The day is yours!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Birthday Herb11.15.2021 Birthday Book; Arlene Nover Corwin

Fingerprints

Wherever you go you leave a print;
Identity that shows uniqueness,
Evidence,
Not more or less.
Startling, yes?
One of a kind, digit to mind.
Unlike an ‘else, unique and special.
Deeply individual.
So,
What e’er you do,
The choices mind is drawn to:
You!
Unique, complete, infinitely perfect – faults and all,
The ways you climb, the ways you fall…
Encompassing distinctive nature,
Its distinctive character and features
Which you choose, – or which choose you.
“Know thyself” said Socrates and Plato
On the Temple of Apollo.
Every Greek, great seeker knew
That when you find the You,
You find the prints that make up who?
The personal, the spiritual, the intellectual,
The movable, achievable, the cordial and primordial,
Real/ideal, menial and genial, bestial, celestial,
The cruel, jewel, worst and finest…
Remember thus, where’er you go,
What e’er you do
You leave a print that it was you –
A you, the one and only
Worth the tracking to its authenticity;
Its genuine originality.
Reliable, dependable, credible and true.
Thus,
the sense
of fingerprints.

Fingerprints 11.20.2021 Nature Of & In Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

  Birthday Mickey

Two days left:
Leaving eighty-six towards
An un-even number
For the comfort of a seven: eighty-seven.
Moving forwards!

It won’t feel entirely different,
But the body knows the difference
As it reaches for eight, nine, one hundred.
(Betty White has reached that number).

Have a happy day,
I mean it.
With that loyal nature
(for you are the loyalist I know):
Strong and loyal!
What a combo!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY two days coming.
Bringing in a year that’s new
On many planes – besides you!
Happy eighty-seven!
Now we’re even.

Birthday Mickey 12.29.2021 Birthday Book; Arlene Nover Corwin
*Mickey Kauderer

               Fame #2 (better version)

I’ve not been ‘up’, so can’t go ‘down’.
I’ve watched TV, been shown
The famous known be sounded,
Talk about their days and nights;
These ‘leading lights’…

One sees the faces, hears the stories:
Bad times, downright failures, glories…
What a drive you have to have
To stay in gear year after year,
Feeling that you must ‘deliver’
For the salary, the ego;
Fame is nothing!
So are you.

You are nothing, even though
Applause, reviews seem news and new;
Gratifying while supplying needs;
But a heart that smarts when reading
that they don’t.
There’s a kind of sham in fame:
Feigning, pretence, artificial…
Fame the bubble, fame a struggle –
Something not worth snuggling up to.

Every minute folk somewhere are going hungry;
Every minute world somewhere is getting angry.
Does it really care that you are here… or there or anywhere?

The best and simplest thing to do
Is follow paths that show you what you’re born to;
How good providence provides to show you
Who you are for,
No one’s born to be a ‘star’.
Human ‘stars’ are concepts only;
Words to entertain the lonely.

Stars are suns far in the heavens.
Reader, leader of your inmost –
Therein lies the star your host.
Fame? 12.28.2021 Nature Of & In Reality; Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

      Fame? #2 

I’ve not been ‘up’, so can’t go ‘down’.
I’ve watch TV, been shown
The famous ‘known’ be sounded,
Talk about their days and nights;
These ‘leading lights’…

One sees the faces, hears the stories:
Bad times, failures, glories…
What a drive you have to have
To stay in gear year after year,
Feeling that you must ‘deliver’
For the salary, the ego;

Fame is nothing. So are you.
You are nothing, even though
Applause, reviews seem new and news;
Gratifying, satisfying while supplying needs;
But heart that smarts when reading
that they don’t.

There’s a kind of sham in fame:
Feigning, pretence, artificial…
Fame the bubble, fame a struggle –
Something not worth snuggling up to.

Every minute folk somewhere are going hungry;
Every minute world somewhere is getting angry.
Does it really care that you are here… or there or anywhere?

The best and simplest thing to do
Is follow paths that show you what you’re born to;
How good providence provides to show you who you are.
No one’s born to be a ‘star’.
Human ‘stars’ are concepts only;
Vainly entertain the lonely.
Stars are suns far in the heavens.
Reader, leader of your inmost being –
Therein lies the star worth seeing.
Fame? 12.27.2021 Nature Of & In Reality; Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

       Fame?

I’ve not been ‘up’, so can’t go ‘down’.
I watch TV. Been shown
The famous ‘known’ be sounded,
Talk about their days and nights,
These ‘leading lights’…
One sees the faces, hears the stories:
Bad times, glories…
What a drive you have to have
To stay in gear year after year,
Feeling that you must ‘deliver’
For the salary, the ego;
Learning fame is nothing. So are you.
You are nothing, even though
Applause, reviews seem new and news
Gratifying, satisfying, yes, supplying needs;
With heart that smarts when reading
that they don’t.

There’s a kind of sham in fame;
Fame the bubble, fame a struggle –
Something not worth snuggling up to.
Folk somewhere are going hungry;
World is always getting angry.
Does it really care that you are there…
Or here or anywhere?

The best thing you can do
Is follow paths that show you
What you’re born to. How
good providence
Provides and shows you who
you are.
No one’s born to be a ‘star’,
Human ‘stars’ are concepts only;
Words to entertain the lonely.
Stars are suns
Far in the heavens.
Reader, leader of your inmost being –
Therein lies the star worth seeing.
Fame? 12.27.2021 Nature Of & In Reality; Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

  No One Who Deserves It More

There’s no one who deserves a verse
More than the first of candy makers.
Each piece wrapped In a disguise,
First and best of vört bread bakers:
Heaven’s prize!

The sugared calories that stand in queue:
I eat a few – not more than two.
But Kent, he eats one hundred two!

The bread: I can’t resist the bread.
It doesn’t need a spread of cheese or anything.
It cannot hurt to eat the vört
Whose slices are the very nicest
Ever served a gal.
You are my pal!
And what a pal.

Yes, no one who deserves a poem:
One who makes a person never leave their home.
Fudge that makes one never budge.
Bread that makes the stomach smile.
Both of which we’d walk a mile for.

We cannot thank you half enough!
I could stuff myself
With half a loaf.
Dear Veronica, you dear.
Always stay forever near.
(Lasse too.)
What would we do without you!
No One Who Deserves It More 12.26.2021 Special People, Special Occasions Arlene Never Corwin